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BULLETIN  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  TEXAS. 


LEAFLETS  FROM  THE  NOTEBOOK 


AECHyEOLOGICAL    TRAVELER 


ASIA   MINOR 


[.  R.  SITLINGTON  STERRETT,  Pli.  D. 


AUSTIN: 
PUBLISHED   BY   THE   UNIVERSITY   OP   TEXAS. 
STATE     PRINTING     OFFICE. 
1889. 


(X 


i,-^ 


J)S 

AN 

AIICH.EOLOGICAL  TUAVKLKH  IN  ASIA  MINOK. 


There  is  ever  a  charm  about  the  quaint  unchanging  Orient.      The  traveler 
soon  finds  that  his  heart  has  been  led  captive  by  his  romantic  surroundings, 
and  the  chains  which  bind  him  to  the  East  become  riveted  all  the  more 
K^  firmly  if  he  deal  in  ancient  lore,  if  he  tread  the  ground  "  for  the  sake  of 
p::  ages,"  seeking  "in  the  sands  of  time"   for  the  "footprints"  of  men  that  are 
^  gone  long  centuries  ago.       He  may  have  traveled  in  the  East  before;  its 
^  scenes  may  all  be  familiar,  but  nevertheless  he  is  always  charmed  anew  as 
►J  the  steamer  approaches  its  destined  port.     Everything  around  him  breathes 
of  poetry  and  romance;  the  beturbaned  crowd  with  its  brilliant  costumes, 
and    the  life  on  the  wharfs,  in    the  streets  and  bazars,  are  ever  new  and 
strange.     Nature,  too,  is  so  beautiful,  the  air  so  sweet,  the  sun  so  gorgeous, 
not  "obscurely  bright,  but  one  unclouded  blaze  of  living  light."     The  trav- 
eler is  indeed  in  a  new  world,  where,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  even  the  dirt 
charms,  to  say  nothing  of  the  dogs  and  the  beggars. 


in 

CO 


OUTFIT    AND    METHOD    OF    SCIENTIFIC    TRAVEL    IN    TURKEY. 


The  first  work  of  the  Archaeologist  upon  arriving    in   Asia  Minor  is  to 
complete  his  outfit.     This  will  be  more  or  less  elaborate  according  to  the 
u_i  means  at  his  disposal  and  the  length  of  time  he  proposes  to  be  absent  in  the 
^  interior.     There  are  no  hotels  in  the  interior — if  I  may  except  the  caravan- 
saries in  the  larger  towns;    and  although  one  would  rarely  have  to  suffer  the 
direst  necessities  in  case  he  should  choose  to  travel  in  sole  reliance  upon  the 
hospitality  of  the  natives — for  the  Turks,  in  common  with  all  semi-civilized 
nations,  have  the  virtue  of  hospitality — yet  for  many  reasons  the  scientific 
traveler  must  go  prepared  to  be  wholly  independent  of  native  hospitality. 
5j  Owing  to  the  light  in  which  Moslems  regard  their  women,  that  is,  owing  to 
rj  the  fact  that  the  women  must  be  secluded  as  much  as  possible  in  the  harem, 
^  the  hospitality  offered  to  the  stranger  is  wholly  different  from  that  to  which 
K  you  are  accustomed.     A  man  can  not  invite  a  guest  into  his  house  and  enter- 
^  tain  him,  as  we  do,  at  a  table  presided  over  by  his  wife.     But  every  well-to- 
do  Moslem,  and  in  fact  many  in  very  moderate  circumstances,  have  a  room 
__.  or  rooms  sacred  to  the  men.     These  rooms  are  called  the  Selavilik,  while 
-  that  part  of  the  house  sacred  to  the  women  is  the  Harem  or  Hamimlik,  as 
every  one  knows.     A  more  common  name  for  the  Selamlik  is  Oda,  or  guest- 
chamber,  and  every  stranger,  be  he  Moslem,  Christian,  Jew,  bond  or  free, 
has  the  undisputed  right  to  take  possession  of  this  Oda  without  so  much  as 
saying   "By  your  leave"  to  the  house-owner.     On   entering  a  village   the 
traveler 'who  has  to  claim  the  hospitality  of  the  natives  asks  the  first  person 
he  meets  to  point  out  an  Oda.     He  then  proceeds  directly  to  it  and  takes  pos- 
session.    Tlie  house-owner  regards  the  stranger  who  thus  quarters  himself 
upon  him  as  the  owner  for  the  time  being  of  the  Oda,  and  strives  as  much 
as  possible  to  place  himself  in  the  hght  of  the  one  obliged.     The  guest  and 
his  whole  party  are  fed  from  the  kitchen  of  the  house-owner.     At  the  meals 
all  eat  together,  master   and  servant,  Moslem  and  Christian,  sitting  cross- 
legged  on  the  floor  around  the  low  circular  table.     Along  the  sides  of  the 


4  An  ArchcFological  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor. 

cliief  room  of  the  Oda  run  the  broad  divans  covered  with  rich  Oriental 
prayer  rugs.  As  the  stranger  enters  the  master  of  the  house  and  all  who 
may  chance  to  be  present  rise  respectfully  to  their  feet.  No  word  is  spoken ; 
no  salutation  is  given ;  the  stranger  is  silently  motioned  to  the  seat  of  honor. 
When  he  has  been  comfortably  seated  the  servants,  or  if  the  house-owner 
belong  to  the  class  which  cannot  or  does  not  keep  servants,  then  some  male 
member  of  his  household,  gives  him  a  cigarette  and  a  cup  of  hot  cofEee  in 
token  of  welcome.  When  he  has  taken  a  whiff  of  the  cigarette  and  a  sip  of 
the  coffee,  then  all  present  salute  him,  making  the  Salaam,  which  t3^pifies  the 
raising  of  the  hem  of  the  stranger's  garment  to  the  heart,  to  the  lips,  and  to  the 
forehead,  and  which  means.  "I  am  yours  to  command  with  my  heart,  with 
my  mouth,  with  my  mind."  The  strange]'  must  not  return  this  salutation 
collectively,  but  must  make  his  Salaam  to  each  individual  present.  Then  all 
present  bid  him  heartily  welcome  and  inquire  affectionately  after  his  health 
and  all  that  concerns  him  and  his.  The  master  of  the  house  in  addition  begs 
the  stranger  to  accept  the  house  and  to  command  him  in  all  respects.  But  I 
have  said  that  it  is  best  for  the  scientific  ■  .aveler  to  go  with  such  an  outfit 
that  he  can  be  wholly  independent  of  nanve  hospitality.  The  reasons  are 
the  following:  Those  who  entertain  him  in  their  houses  naturally  enough 
expect  him  to  talk  to  them.  This  talk  is  very  entertaining  and  amusing  as  long 
as  one  is  a  novice  in  the  country,  for  the  reason  that  it  is  always  naive  and 
childlike  prattle.  They  discuss  the  rotundity  of  the  world,  for  instance,  gen- 
erally defending  the  negative  side  of  the  question;  they  ask  you  whether  the 
sun  moves;  how  much  tribute  you  countrymen  pay  to  their  Sultan;  what 
your  business  is;  how  many  brothers  and  sisters  you  have,  and  a  thousand 
other  questions  of  a  like  nature.  They  examine  with  unconcealed  pleasure 
and  astonishment  your  rifle,  your  revolver,  your  knife,  your  pen,  your  pen- 
cils, your  helmet,  your  corduroy  suit,  your  stockings  and  shoes.  This  of 
course  grows  monotonous  if  one  is  compelled  to  go  through  such  an  exami- 
nation several  times  a  day.  But  worst  of  all  the  acceptance  of  native 
hospitality  makes  it  impossible  for  the  traveler  to  find  time  for  writing  out 
in  durable  and  plain  form  his  road-notes  of  the  day  and  for  copying  into 
a  second  book  the  inscriptions  he  may  have  found  during  the  day.  But  if 
he  travel  with  his  own  tents,  cook,  servants  and  horses,  then  he  simply  has 
his  tents  pitched  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  village,  from  which  to  get  supplies 
for  man  and  beast,  and  being  real  master  in  his  own  house  he  can  write  to 
his  heart's  content,  and  need  pay  no  attention  whatever  to  the  inquisitive 
mob  of  villagers  who  ever  throng  his  camp. 

ROUTE-SURVEYING    AND    MAP-MAKING. 

My  plan  of  travel  was  to  explore  those  regions  of  country  which  were  blanks 
or  virtual  blanks  on  the  old  maps.  I  aimed  to  leave  my  camp  at  sunrise,  di- 
recting my  cook  to  go  with  the  Imggage  and  encamp  at  a  given  village  some 
three  or  four  hours  distant.  They  would  reach  the  village  agreed  upon  by 
noon;  the  tents  would  be  pitched;  the  cook  would  busy  himself  in  preparing 
the  evening  meal,  while  the  baggage  servants,  after  the  camp  and  horses  had 
been  properly  cared  for,  would  scour  the  village  in  quest  of  inscriptions,  it  be- 
ing a  part  of  their  duty  to  report  to  me  immediately  upon  my  arrival  in  camp. 
After  leaving  camp  in  the  morning  I  made  it  my  business  to  visit  every  \  illage 
in  the  whole  region  of  country  between  the  camp  of  the  morning  and  that  of 
the  evening.  Every  village  was  searched  for  inscriptions  and  other  remains 
of  antiquity;  every  one  was  questioned  in  regard  to  these  things,  and  every 
scrap  of  information  in  regard  to  the  whereabouts  of  inscriptions  or  ruins 


An  Archceological  T7-avele7'-  in  Asia  Minor.  5 

was  made  use  of  or  put  to  the  test  at  once.  Often  information  thus  gained 
would  turn  out  to  be  false  or  at  least  erroneous,  but  still  I  could  never  afford 
to  neglect  any  hint,  however  much  I  might  be  disposed  to  suspect  it.  Before 
leaving  camp  in  the  morning  I  took  accurate  bearings  with  the  prismatic 
compass  of  all  the  surrounding  country.  As  soon  as  1  was  m  the  saddle  I 
noted  down  first  the  time  of  starting,  and  then  the  direction  in  which  I  was 
heading.  At  every  point  where  the  road  changed  its  general  direction  per- 
ceptibly, I  noted  down  the  time  of  day  and  the  new  direction.  When  cross- 
ing a  brook  or  river,  I  noted  down  the  time  of  day,  the  direction  from 
which  the  water  came  and  the  direction  in  which  it  flowed.  After  traveling 
for  half  an  hour  or  an  hour  at  most,  I  would  dismount  from  my  horse,  plant 
my  large  compass,  and  while  the  needle  was  becoming  steady,  make  a  note 
of  the  whole  surrounding  country.  Then  when  the  needle  of  the  compass 
had  become  stationary,  it  was  but  the  work  of  a  moment  to  read  off  from 
the  compass  and  note  down  the  bearings  of  all  the  villages  m  sight,  and  of 
all  the  prominent  objects,  whether  mountains  or  hills.  This  had  to  be 
repeated  at  least  once  every  hour;  oftener  if  the  country  was  rugged  and 
difficult. 

Geographers  have  established  the  fact  that  the  average  horse  at  an  average 
gait  will  pass  over  three  English  miles  and  one-half  in  one  hour.  Conse- 
quently the  traveler  must  keep  an  accurate  account  of  every  moment  of 
time,  and  so  he  is  compelled  to  ride  along  with  watch,  compass,  notebook, 
and  pencil  constantly  in  hand,  ready  to  jot  down  anything  of  importance  at 
the  very  moment  when  first  he  becomes  aware  of  it.  Tliis  is  the  way  in 
which  the  map  of  unknown  districts  is  filled  out.  Of  course  such  work  is 
only  preliminary,  but  it  is  the  best  that  can  be  done  or  be  hoped  for  until  it 
be  possible  to  make  a  regular  scientific  survey  of  the  whole  countr}^,  and  for 
Asia  Minor  that  day  is  in  the  distant  future,  unless  the  Turkish  Empire  be 
merged  into  that  of  some  Christian  nation.  My  day  would  accordingly  be 
taken  up  with  a  route  survey  of  the  country,  and  with  copying  the  inscrip- 
tions which  I  might  chance  to  find.  My  aim  was  to  reach  camp  at  about  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  Upon  my  arrival  I  would  find  the  camp  beset  with 
villagers  sitting  in  a  circle  around  the  cook,  intently  watching  his  operations 
and  those  of  the  other  servants.  All  would  rise  to  their  feet  out  of  respect 
to  me.  I  made  it  my  first  business  to  question  them  minutely,  notebook  in 
hand,  not  only  concerning  inscriptions  but  also  concerning  the  topography  of 
the  whole  region  of  country  round  about  their  village.  When  I  had  pumped 
all  their  topographical  knowledge  out  of  them  and  got  enougli  information 
to  enable  me  to  shape  my  course  intelligently  on  the  following  day,  I 
thanked  them,  and  then  betook  myself  to  my  tent  in  order  to  write  out  my 
road-notes,  copy  my  inscriptions,  and  eat  my  dinner.  By  this  time  night 
had  come  and  my  day's  work  was  done. 

WnKKK    INSCKIPTIONS    ARE    FOUND. 

When  the  hordes  of  Turcoman  shepherds  left  their  original  home  in 
Turkistan  in  quest  of  better  homes  in  the  west,  they  attacked  and  conquered 
the  effete  Byzantine  Empire.  Being  zealous  Mohammedans  they  hated  with 
an  intense  hatred  the  Greeks,  who  were  the  chief  representatives  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  East.  They  were  not  content  with  simply  conquering  the 
Greek  or  Byzantine  empire,  but  they  aimed  to  destroy  all  traces  of  the 
Greek  civilization  as  well.  The  demon  of  destruction  held  high  carnival, 
and  in  this  way  there  disappeared  buildings  that  belonged  not  only  to  the 
Christian  period,  but  also  many  of  the  remains  of  the  classical  pagan  civih- 


6  An  Archaeological  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor. 

zation,  which  had  been  spared  by  time  and  the  fanaticism  of  the  early  Chris- 
tians. Much  ruin  was  wrought,  and  many  documents  in  stone  of  priceless 
value  to  the  historian  perished  at  the  hands  of  the  invaders;  but  still  the  un- 
dertaking  was  too  vast  for  even  the  destructive  powers  of  the  Turk,  and 
many  precious  monuments  and  inscriptions  are  still  spared  to  tell  their  tale 
even  at  this  late  day,  each  adding  its  mite  to  our  knowledge  of  the  history  of 
the  past.  It  is  the  part  of  the  traveling  Archaeologist  to  hunt  up  these 
remains,  whether  they  be  monumental  or  epigraphical. 

After  the  first  fury  of  the  storm  of  devastation  had  passed,  the  Turks,  who 
were  then  pure  nomads  and  are  still  semi-nomads,  bethought  themselves  that 
their  idea  of  empire  might  be  more  easily  realized  were  they  to  abandon  their 
nomadic  habits  and  become  residents  in  fixed  abodes  for  at  least  a  part  of  the 
year.  For  this  purpose  houses  were  absolutely  necessary.  But  they  had  ruth- 
lessly destroyed  everything,  and  they  did  not  possess  architectural  skill  suffi- 
cient to  erect  buildings  in  any  way  compai^able  to  those  they  had  destroyed. 
However,  a  roof  over  their  heads  during  the  winter  was  all  they  aimed  at; 
it  mattered  not  that  the  houses  were  ill  built  and  shabby  in  the  extreme. 
After  fixing  upon  sites  for  their  villages,  their  first  thought  was  to  build 
mosques,  and  in  building  them  they  utilized  the  ancient  stones,  which  were 
always  well  hewn  and  easy  to  handle.  The  intez'stices  were  filled  in  with 
small  unhewn  stones  and  mud  mortar.  To  this  use  of  old  stones  is  due  the 
fact  that  many  stones  bearing  inscriptions  are  found  in  the  walls  of  mosques. 
In  inserting  such  stones  into  the  wall  of  the  mosque,  they  paid  no  attention 
whatever  to  the  inscription.  Chance  alone  decided  whether  if  should  fall  on 
the  outside  or  be  buried  in  the  wall.  Even  when  the  inscription  did  fall  on 
the  outside  of  the  wall,  it  is  rarely  right  side  up,  but  in  most  cases  it  either  lies 
sidewise  or  is  upside  down.  The  Turks  are  very  particular  about  their 
drinking  water,  and  they  compare  notes  about  the  water  of  two  given  vil- 
lages or  localities  in  precisely  the  same  way  that  German  connoisseurs  discuss 
their  beer.  The  cool  freshness  and  purity  of  water  is  highly  prized,  not 
only  for  drinking  purposes  and ,  household  use,  but  also  for  the  ablutions  so 
necessary  before  prayer.  Owing  to  these  facts  the  public  fountains,  with 
which  every  village  and  every  mosque  of  any  importance  are  abundantly 
supplied,  take  rank  immediately  after  the  mosques.  Some  attempt  at  archi- 
tectural beauty  is  always  visible  in  the  fountains,  and  how  could  this  coveted 
beauty  be  attained  better  than  by  making  use  of  the  fine  old  stones  of  the 
hated  infidels?  There  are  then  two  places  within  the  limits  of  every  village 
which  the  Archaeological  traveler  must  examine. — the  mosque  and  the  foun- 
tains; and  if  the  village  be  anywhere  in  the  neighborhood  of  an  ancient  town, 
he  is  almost  sure  to  discover  inscriptions  in  the  walls  of  one  or  of  both  these 
structures.  Outside  of  the  village  the  Archaeologist  must  also  examine  care- 
fully the  old  Turkisli  cemeteries,  which  in  many  cases  are  situated  far  from 
a  village.  As  is  well  known  the  Turks  have  great  respect  for  the  graves  of 
their  fathers.  A  grave  is  inviolate,  and  must  have  a  stone  at  its  head  and 
foot  to  signify  its  sacred  character  forever.  It  does  not  make  a  particle  of 
difference  what  may  be  the  character  of  the  stones  used,  provided  only  they 
be  large  and  heavy,  for  then  they  will  stand  erect  and  mark  tlie  spot  as  a 
grave  for  ages  after  the  mound  over  the  grave  has  been  completely  leveled. 
The  early  Turks  then  used  the  ancient  stones  of  the  Graeco-Roman  period 
not  only  for  building  their  mosques  and  fountains,  but  also  for  tombstones, 
and  their  cemeteries  exhibit  the  queerest  and  most  ridiculous  jumble  of  all 
sorts  of  ancient  marbles.  Altars  of  the  pagan  gods,  round,  cubical,  and 
horned  altars,  huge  columns  and  epistyle  blocks  from  temples,  Roman  mile- 
stones  with    Latin   inscriptions,    double-columned    window   supports    from 


An  Arckieological  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor.  7 

Christian  churches,  are  all  made  to  stand  as  sentinels  over  the  graves  of  the 
faithful  Moslems.  Not  only  this,  but  ancient  Greek  tombstones  in  all  their 
endless  variety,  from  the  simple  slab  to  the  sculptured  stele  with  temple  pedi- 
ment, are  made  to  do  duty  a  second  time — one  of  the  queerest  commentaries 
on  the  -instability  of  human  affairs.  The  inscriptions  as  a  rule  have  not 
been  erased  from  these  stones,  so  that  one  finds  on  the  graves  of  the  Turks 
important  decrees  of  cities,  municipal  laws,  letters  of  kings  to  cities,  legisla- 
tive regulations  and  edicts  of  imperial  Rome,  the  autobiography  of  wealthy 
or  powerful  citizens,  the  cursus  honorum  of  Roman  proconsuls  and  legates, 
and  innumerable  epitaphs  of  men  dead  long  ages  before  the  Turkish  conquest. 
The  inscribed  tombstones  of  the  Christian  dead  were  also  utilized  as  tomb- 
stones by  the  Turks,  but  they  could  not  brook  the  cross.  Christian  tomb- 
stones almost  always  bore  a  cross  in  relief ;  sometimes  this  cross  was  as  high 
as  the  stone,  with  the  epitaph  inscribed  on  either  side  of  the  vertical  bar  of 
the  cross.  It  was  necessary  for  Moslem  pride  to  erase  this  cross  before  such 
a  stone  could  stand  over  the  grave  of  one  of  the  faithful.  They  had  to 
content  themselves  with  hacking  away  the  relief,  but  they  were  of  course 
unable  to  deface  the  stone  so  utterly  that  no  traces  of  the  cross  remained, 
nay,  in  many  cases  it  is  thus  brought  into  greater  prominence.  But  at  any 
rate  it  has  been  insulted,  and.  that  is  soothing  to  religious  pride  and  hate. 
According  to  what  we  have  just  seen  there  are  three  places  where  the 
Archteologist  traveler  can  search  for  inscriptions  without  asking  leave  of  any 
one,  that  is,  in  the  mosques,  the  fountains,  and  the  cemeteries.  But  of 
course  inscriptions  are  found  in  oth^-  places,  and  if  they  be  in  private  houses, 
then  in  order  to  get  at  them,  much  diplomacy,  both  on  the  part  of  the  Arch- 
aeologist and  his  servants,  is  often  needed  in  order  to  persuade  the  ever  sus- 
picious householder  to  give  one  permission  to  enter  the  sacred  precincts  of 
his  house  and  harena.     The  reasons  for  this  are  in  the  main  the  following: 

TURKISH    SUPERSTITIONS    IN    REGARD    TO    INSCRIPTIONS    AND    HIDDEN    TREASURE. 

There  is  a  belief  that  pervades  all  classes  of  Turks,  both  high  and  low,  that 
the  stones  which  bear  inscriptions  have  money  or  other  treasure  either  inside 
the  stones  themselves,  or  else  that  the  inscriptions  on  the  stones  tell  where 
nioney  or  treasure  was  hid  by  the  people  who  fled  from  their  homes  when 
the  all-conquering  hordes  of  Turks  were  invading  the  country  more  than 
four  hundred  years  ago.  Their  theory  in  regard  to  the  business  of  the 
Archaeologist  is  that  he  is  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  former  inhabitants  of  the 
country,  that  his  family  has  preserved  throughout  all  these  ages  traditions  in 
regard  to  vast  treasure  stowed  away  by  them  when  they  were  compelled  to 
abandon  their  former  homes,  and  lastly,  that  the  Archaeologist  has  come  to 
search  the  country,  find  the  family  inscriptions  that  tell  exactly  were  the 
treasure  is  hidden,  and  then  return  to  the  home  of  his  adoption  laden  with 
wealth.  Accordingly  ignorant  peasants  are  loth  to  tell  of  inscriptions  in 
their  houses,  because  such  stones  are  their  own  individual  property,  and  they 
can  not  bring  themselves  to  give  away  a  secret  which  may  one  day  be  con- 
verted into  millions.  Nothing  whatever  can  shake  their  faith  in  this  super- 
stition. Often  and  often  as  I  was  busy  copying  or  making  impressions  of 
inscriptions,  a  curious,  suspicious  mob  would  collect  around  me.  As  a  rule  I 
had  no  time  to  waste  upon  them;  but  presently  some  one  would  pluck  up 
courage  enough  to  ask  me  where  the  money  was  ?  When  I  intended  to  get 
it?  How  much  it  was,  and  whether  I  would  not  be  generous  enough  to  share 
my  wealth  with  them?  I  always  denied  the  existence  of  treasure,  and  ex- 
plained that  my  business  was  to  gather  up  the  scattered*  facts  of  history,  so 


8  An  ArchcBolozical  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor. 


''^> 


that  by  weaving  together  a  multitude  of  facts  the  historian  might  be  able  to 
give  something  like  an  accurate  account  of  the  country  before  it  was  con- 
quered by  their  ancestors.  This  was  all  wasted  breath;  and  possibly  my 
servants  pursued  the  wiser  plan,  for  their  aim  was  to  get  as  much  fun  as 
possible  out  of  the  simple  villagers,  and  they  made  it  a  point  to  tell  them 
that  there  was  buried  treasure  and  that  by  digging  they  would  find  it.  The 
natives  have  dug  on  their  own  account  in  innumerable  places,  and  many 
ancient  buildings  have  been  brought  to  ruin  by  having  their  foundations 
undermined  by  these  searchers  after  hidden  treasure.  In  their  search  for 
buried  gold  they  are  always  guided  by  what  they  call  a  Nishan.  The  word 
Nishan  is  equivalent  to  our  word  siglit^  i.  e.,  the  sight  or  sights  of  a  rifle  gun. 
These  Nishan  sights  are  generally  round  natural  holes  in  rocks,  such  as  are 
often  found  in  the  limestone  formation.  The  theory  is  that  they  point  directly 
toward  the  spot  where  the  coveted  treasure  lies  hid.  But  unfortunately  they 
only  indicate  accurately  the  direction,  but  not  the  spot  itself,  where  lies  the 
treasure,  and  it  is  assumed  that  the  inscriptions,  which,  alas,  they  can  not 
read,  give  the  information  necessary  for  identifying  the  exact  spot.  Accord- 
ingly they  envy  and  hate  the  interloping  Archaeologist,  because,  in  their  opin- 
ion, he  possesses  the  knowledge  necessary  to  unravel  the  mystery  and  lay 
hold  upon  the  coveted  treasure. 

There  is  a  Nishan  sight  of  a  different  character.  The  ancients  often  made 
sun-dials  on  the  walls  of  buildings,  especially  on  walls  that  faced  the  market- 
place. Little  grooves,  to  mark  the  time  of  day,  radiated  from  the  dial-nail. 
They  were  chiseled  with  care  on  the  face  of  the  wall.  Now  some  of  these 
grooves  of  course  pointed  down  to  the  ground,  and  according  to  the  prevail- 
ing superstition  located  exactly  the  spot  where  treasure  lay  buried.  Knowing 
as  I  do  the  insane  mania  of  the  Turks  on  this  subject,  I  can  easily  picture  to 
myself  the  ecstasy  of  joy  felt  by  a  peasant  on  discovering  a  Nishan  sight  of 
the  latter  kind.  He  hurries  home,  gathers  up  the  implements  necessary  for 
unearthing  the  buried  gold.  He  works  secretly,  but  with  might  and  main, 
hoping  to  get  it  alone  and  unaided.  He  has  not  quite  reached  it.  His 
family  notices  his  mysterious  absences;  they  detect  and  then  assist  him, 
working  with  fever  heat  in  order  to  get  the  gold  before  the  neighbors  find  it 
out.  But  their  secrecy  and  their  toil  avail  them  nothing;  the  matter  has  be- 
come known  to  all  the  villagers;  they  turn  out  in  a  body;  a  great  space  is 
soon  excavated  at  the  base  of  the  building;  the  wall  totters;  it  falls,  and  one 
more  memento  of  the  mighty  men  of  old  lies  prone  in  the  dust. 

THE     SAME     SUPERSTITION     CAUSED     THE     DESTRUCTION    IN    GREECE    OF    THE    CELE- 
BRATED   LION    OP    CHAEKONEA. 

I  have  already  mentioned  th%  belief  that  treasure  is  safely  hid  in  the  in- 
terior of  stones  that  bear  inscriptions.  How  they  suppose  it  to  have  got 
there  is  known  only  to  the  Turkish  intellect;  at  any  rate  it  is  universalUy 
believed,  and  I  have  seen  many  stones  that  have  been  broken  to  pieces  to 
get  the  treasure.  The  treasure  is  of  course  not  found,  but  ill  success  does 
not  dampen  their  ardor,  nor  shake  their  faith  in  the  slightest  degree.  If  you 
ask  them  why  they  were  not  successful,  the  unvarying  answer  is  Allah  hilir, 
God  knows.  This  superstition  is  not  confined  to  the  Turks,  and  is  shared 
by  the  uneducated  peasantry  of  Greece  as  well.  It  caused  the  destruction 
in  Greece  of  one  of  the  most  venerable  and  interesting  monuments  that  had 
come  down  to  us  from  a  hoary  antiquity.  In  the  year  338  B.  C.,  Philip,  king 
of  Macedonia,  conquered  the  allied  Athenians  and  Boeotians  in  the  ever 
memorable  field  of  Cha^ronea,  thus  crushing  forever  the  liberties  of  Greece. 


A 71  Arc/ueo logical  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor.  9 

The  Athenians  and  Boeotians  erected  a  marble  Hon  on  the  battle-field  in 
memory  of  the  men  who  had  fallen  there.  Pausanias,  the  Greek  traveler, 
whose  book  is  still  the  best  guide  to  Greece,  mentions  the  lion  in  the  follow- 
ing words:  "On  approaching  the  city  there  is  the  tomb  of  the  Boeotians, 
who  fell  in  the  l)att]e  with  Philip.  It  has  no  inscription,  but  the  figure  of  a 
lion  is  placed  upon  it,  as  an  emblem  of  the  spirit  of  these  men.  The  inscrip- 
tion has  been  omitted,  as  I  suppose  because  the  gods  had  willed  that  tlieir 
fortune  should  not  be  equal  to  their  prowess."  Now  during  the  long  war 
between  the  Greeks  and  the  Turks,  the  result  of  which  was  Greek  inde- 
pendence and  the  establishment  of  the  present  kingdom  of  Greece,  the  tomb 
of  the  Boeotians  was  excavated  and  the  lion  found  still  whole  and  well  pre- 
served. After  the  war  had  closed,  a  Greek  generajl,  with  the  Homeric  name 
Odysseus,  happened  to  be  passing  by  the  village  with  a  body  of  men;  he 
saw  the  lion,  and  being  possessed  of  the  belief  that  gold  was  in  the  interior, 
he  caused  a  hole  to  be  drilled  in  it,  and  blew  it  up  with  gunpowder.  Col. 
Mure  says:  "The  lion  may,  upon  the  whole,  be  pronounced  the  most  inter- 
esting sepulchral  monument  in  Greece,  probably  in  Europe.  It  is  the  only  one 
dating  from  the  better  days  of  Hellas,  with  the  exception  perhaps  of  the 
tumulus  of  Marathon,  the  identity  of  which  is  beyond  dispute.  It  is  also  an 
ascertained  specimen  of  the  sculpture  of  the  most  perfect  period  of  Greek 
art.  That  it  records  the  last  decisive  blow  beneath  which  Hellenic  independ- 
ence sunk,  never  permanently  to  rise  again,  were  in  itself  a  sufficiently 
strong  claim  on  our  warmest  sympathies.  But  the  mode  in  which  it  records 
that  fatal  event  renders  the  claim  doubly  powerful.  For  this  monument 
possesses  the  affecting  peculiarity  of  being  erected  not,  as  usual  with  those 
situated  like  itself  on  a  field  of  battle,  to  commemorate  the  victory,  but  the 
misfortune  of  the  warriors  whose  bodies  repose  in  the  soil  beneath — the 
valor,  not  the  success,  of  their  struggle  for  liberty."  But  the  lion  is  gone, 
blown  to  pieces  by  a  general,  near  the  middle  of  the  much  vaunted  nine- 
teenth century,  it  a  sacred  monument  that  had  come  down  to  us  as  a  pos- 
session forever,  having  braved  the  malice  of  man  and  the  ravages  of  time  for 
nearly  '2200  years.  I  have  stood  by  the  tomb  of  the  Boeotians,  and  as  I 
gazed  upon  the  fragments  of  the  marble  lion,  "rage,  sorrow,  humiliation, 
and  shame"  filled  my  breast. 

DIFFICULTIES    ENCOUNTERED    IN    COPYING    INSCRIPTIONS? 

But  I  must  return  to  Asia  Minor.  From  what  has  been  said  you  can 
readily  understand  that  many  monuments  that  would  have  given  us  priceless 
information  in  regard  to  the  history  of  a  given  district  have  perished  forever 
because  of  greed  of  gold  inspired  by  a  miserable  superstition. 

Notwithstanding  the  sacredness  of  the  cemetery  I  found  that  the  Turks 
were  ever  ready  to  lend  me  a  helping  hand  in  digging  about  stones  that 
marked  the  graves  of  their  ancestors.  Sometimes  the  stone  had  fallen  and 
lay  half  buried  and  would  have  to  be  raised  or  turned  over,  because  I  either 
suspected  that  it  contained  an  inscription,  or  else  a  part  of  the  inscription 
would  be  visible,  the  rest  being  under  ground.  The  stones  used  by  the  an- 
cients for  inscriptions  and  milestones  are  massive  and  heavy.  It  was  always 
necessary  for  me  to  call  upon  the  villagers  for  assistance.  In  return  for  a 
few  cents  they  would  come  with  mattocks  and  levers  and  soon  the  inscription 
would  be  exposed  to  view.  Sometimes  after  I  had  finished  with  a  stone  in 
a  cemetery,  they  would  reverently  put  it  back  in  its  old  place,  but  by  no 
means  always.  Frequently  inscriptions  would  be  buried  in  the  walls  of 
private   houses.     As   soon  as  I  had   ascertained   for   certain    that  a  given 


10  An  Archceological  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor, 

stone  in  the  wall  of  a  house  bore  an  inscription,  my  chief  servant  would  enter 
upon  negotiations  with  the  house  owner,  who  in  lieu  of  half  a  dollar  or  a  dol- 
lar would  be  found  willing  to  demolish  a  part  of  the  wall  of  his  house  and 
make  a  hole  large  enough  to  enable  me  to  get  at  the  inscription.  As  I  have 
already  mentioned,  inscriptions  are  found  in  all  sorts  of  positions.  If  they 
are  deeply  buried  bottom  side  up  in  the  foundations  of  a  mosque  or  house, 
then  a  deep  hole  would  have  to  be  dug,  and  I  had  to  lie  with  my  head  down 
in  the  hole  in  order  to  read  it.  Such  a  position  becomes  very  painful  in  a 
short  time,  and  if  the  inscription  be  difficult  to  decipher  and  the  sun  be  pour- 
ing down  upon  one  with  all  the  concentrated  power  it  has  in  the  East,  you 
can  readily  understand  that  it  requires  much  firmness  to  persevere  to  the  bit- 
ter end  and  until  every  doubt  m  regard  to  the  decipherment  of  the  inscription 
disappear.  Once  I  found  a  number  of  inscriptions  in  a  wall  about  fifty  feet 
above  the  ground.  I  was  determined  to  get  a  copy  of  them  at  any  cost,  and 
consequently  a  very  long  ladder  had  to  be  constructed.  The  lumber  for  this 
ladder  had  to  be  transported  about  two  miles  on  the  shoulders  of  men,  and 
be  carried  up  a  steep  hill  at  that.  I  hired  seventeen  laboring  men  and  two 
carpenters.  When  the  rough,  heavy  ladder  was  done,  it  was  as  much  as  all 
of  us— some  twenty-five  men  in  all — could  do  to  put  it  in  place,  and  to  move 
it  along  the  face  of  the  wall  from  one  stone  to  another.  The  ladder  was  not 
quite  long  enough  to  reach  two  of  the  inscriptions,  and  I  had  to  stand  on  the 
last  round  without  any  support  except  such  as  I  could  get  by  pi'essing  my 
body  closely  to  the  wall.  My  left  hand  held  my  note-book;  my  right  hand 
the  lead  pencil.  If  you  stand  for  two  hours  with  your  body  pressed  close  to 
a  wall  and  look  straight  up,  long  before  the  time  shall  have  elapsed  you  will 
realize  the  extreme  painfulness  of  the  position.  In  my  case  the  painfulness 
was  enhanced  by  the  knowledge  that  I  was  fifty  feet  above  the  ground.  In 
additition  a  fierce  wind  was  blowing,  and  several  times  I  felt  that  my  epi- 
graphical  career  was  to  be  cut  short  then  and  there.  At  any  rate  I  have 
always  felt  that  those  incriptions  were  purchased  at  a  price.  Another  time  I 
discovered  a  great  inscription  cut  in  huge  letters  on  the  face  of  an  almost 
perpendicular  rock,  the  top  of  the  inscription  being  about  forty  feet  from 
the  ground.  The  letters  were  so  overgrown  with  moss  that  the  inscription 
could  not  be  read  from  below  eveA  with  the  help  of  a  glass.  So  there  was 
nothing  left  but  to  scramble  up  as  best  I  might,  and  clean  out  the  letters. 
With  the  assistance  of  my  men  I  managed  to  get  up  to  a  projecting  shelf  on 
the  rock  about  twenty  feet  from  the  ground.  Once  on  the  projecting  shelf 
I  had  to  remove  my  shoes  and  crawl  up  the  rest  of  the  way  with  fingers  and 
toes.  The  top  of  the  inscription  was  reached  and  all  the  letters  were  cleaned 
out  in  a  vertical  line  as  far  as  my  arms  could  reach.  But  I  could  not  move 
horizontally  along  the  face  of  the  rock,  and  it  became  necessary  to  crawl 
down  and  then  up  again  at  a  different  place.  Finally  the  whole  inscription 
was  cleaned  out,  And  then  all  the  climbing  had  to  be  gone  over  again  twice; 
first,  in  order  to  copy  the  inscription,  and  secondly,  in  order  to  verify  my 
copy.  When  this  was  done  I  was  completely  exhausted  and  trembled  in 
every  fibre.  Then  I  discovered  to  my  horror  that  I  could  not  get  down  from 
the  projecting  shelf  on  which  I  stood.  Again  and  again  T  tried,  but  my 
courage  failed  me  each  time,  and  I  scrambled  back  to  the  projecting  shelf.  The 
matter  became  serious,  and  at  last  I  made  up  my  mind  that  the  only  way  out 
of  the  difficulty  was  to  climb  down  as  far  as  I  could  and  then  let  all  holds  go 
and  drop.  This  was  done.  My  men  stood  below  and  broke  the  fall  with  their 
arms  and  bodies.  Fortunately  the  inscription  proved  to  be  of  the  greatest 
value  for  fixing  the  topography  of  the  surrounding  coimtry,  and  that  at  least 
was  some  recompense  for  all  my  trouble  and  danger  in  securing  a  copy  of  it. 


An  Archceological  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor.  1 1 


THE    CBU.EBKATKD    EDICT    OK    OKCISTUS. 

More  than  fifty  years  ago  an  inscription  was  copied  by  Hamilton  at  the  site 
of  Orcistus,  in  northeastern  Phrygia.  The  work  of  copying  it  was  done  very 
badly.  When  Momnisen  came  to  edit  it  in  the  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Latina- 
rum,  it  became  evident  that  the  inscription  was  one  of  the  greatest  import- 
ance for  historical  purposes,  inasmuch  as  it  was  a  copy  of  a  decree  of  one  of 
the  Roman  emperors  conferring  inunicipal  rights  on  the  town  of  Orcistus. 
So  anxious  was  Mommsen,  who  was  then  busied  in  writing  his  history  of 
Rome,  to  secure  an  accurate  copy,  that,  at  his  instance,  an  expedition  was  sent 
out  under  the  auspices  of  the  museum  of  Berlin  for  the  especial  purpose  of 
finding  the  stone  and  of  copying  the  inscription.  This  was  somewhere  about 
the  year  1850;  I  do  not  know  the  exact  date  at  the  moment  of  writing  this. 
Mordtmann,  the  leader  of  the  expedition,  knew  from  Hamilton's  statements 
that  the  stone  was  somewhere  about  a  mill,  but  he  did  not  succeed  in  finding- 
it,  and  the  expedition  proved  a  complete  failure.  In  the  year  1883  I  was 
traveling  in  Phrygia  with  W.  M.  Ramsay,  a  Scotch  gentleman,  now  professor 
in  the  University  of  Aberdeen.  We  determined  to  find  that  stone  if  it 
were  still  in  existence.  "One  night  in  September,  several  hours  after  sunset, 
we  reached  Alikel.  the  site  of  Orcistus.  Next  morning  we  found  that  our 
tent  had  been  pitched  amid  a  wide-spread  Turcoman  encampment  close  beside 
a  cemetery,  which  was  full  of  ancient  marbles.  A  glance  at  one  long  in- 
scription, which  bore  the  name  of  the  city,  showed  us  that  we  had  indeed 
reached  the  site  of  Orcistus.  Mordtmann  in  trying  to  find  the  inscription 
made  the  great  mistake  of  showing  too  hurriedly  the  reason  of  his  visit; 
whereas  it  is  a  universal  rule  in  the  East  that  if  you  wish  to  get  anything 
you  must  show  complete  indifference  about  it.  W^e  therefore  asked  no  ques- 
tions about  the  inscription  which  we  were  really  in  search  of.  We  bought 
the  largest  sheep  that  could  be  found,  invited  the  elders  of  the  village  to  sup- 
per, and  committed  to  them  the  task  of  roasting  the  sheep  whole,  while  we 
occupied  ourselves  in  copying  the  inscriptions  in  the  cemetery.  When  even- 
ing arrived  one  of  our  men,  who  had  been  carefully  instructed  in  what  was 
to  be  done,  presided  at  the  feast,  and  gradually  drew  the  conversation  in  the 
proper  direction.  He  soon  learned  all  that  we  wished.  Many  of  the  vil- 
lagers remembered  Mordtmann's  visit,  and  told  with  much  glee  how  he 
looked  in  vain  for  the  stone,  which  was  concealed  at  a  mill,  called  the  Bash 
Deirmen,  that  is,  the  uppermost  mill  on  the  stream.  Next  morning  we  went 
to  the  Bash  Deirmen,  and  soon  found  out  where  the  stone  was  hidden.  It 
was  still  where  Hamilton  describes  it.  supporting  an  embankment  which  con- 
ducts a  stream  of  water  to  the  mill.  But  whereas  in  Hamilton's  time  the  in- 
scribed stone  was  at  the  outer  side  of  the  embankment,  the  mill  has  since 
been  enlarged,  and  the  whole  embankment  widened.  Thus  the  stone  came 
to  be  in  the  centre  of  the  embankment,  completely  hidden  from  view,  and 
could  hardly  have  been  found  except  by  the  voluntary  information  of  the 
natives.  A  bargain  was  soon  struck  with  the  owner  of  the  mill,  which  at 
that  season  was  not  working.  He  agreed  to  break  down  a  few  yards  of  the 
embankment,  and  allow  us  to  see  the  stone.  The  price  of  this  concession 
was  about  $10.  But  when  the  stone  was  disclosed  our  disappointment 
was  great.  It  was  covered  with  a  thick  incrustation,  deposited  by  the  water 
of  the  mill-stream.  This  incrustation  was  very  hard,  and  we  had  no  means 
of  removing  it,  while  it  was  so  thick  that  it  entirely  concealed  a  great  part  of 
the  inscription,  though  in  a  few  places  where  it  was  less  thick  Latin  letters 
could  be  discerned.     We  saw  that  a  few  passages  might  be  deciphered  by 


12  An  ArchcBological  Travele?"  in  Asia  Mino7\ 

bringing  out  the  stone  from  its  concealment  into  an  advantageous  position; 
but  we  also  reflected  that  if  we  brought  it  out  and  showed  great  interest  in  it, 
it  would  certainly  be  destroyed  in  search  of  the  gold  hidden  inside,  as  soon 
as  we  left  the  place.  Within  a  few  minutes,  therefore,  we  formed  a  resolution 
to  say  that  the  stone  was  poor,  and  to  return  again  in  some  future  year  when 
we  had  learned  the  art  of  removing  incrustation  from  marble.  We  declared 
that  we  had  seen  enough,  waited  only  long  enough  to  be  sure  that  the  em- 
bankment was  restored,  and  left  the  village  next  morning."* 

Here  ended  my  individual  connection  with  this  stone,  but  my  companion,  Mr. 
Eamsa)',  returned  to  Orcistus  in  1886.  He  had  been  instructed  at  the  Museum 
of  Berlin  how  to  remove  the  incrustation,  and  had  a  set  of  implements  to  be 
used  in  the  work.  Arrived  at  Orcistus,  he  again  showed  no  immediate  inter- 
est in  the  great  stone,  encamped  far  away,  and  expressed  only  a  desire  to  see 
again  the  long  Greek  inscription  which  we  had  copied  in  1883.  This  latter 
stone,  as  we  expected,  had  been  destroyed  in  search  of  treasure  after  we  left. 
After  some  diplomacy  similar  to  that  already  described  the  stone  once  more 
lay  uncovei'ed.  After  four  days  of  work  the  inscription  that  had  cost  so 
much  money  and  time  was  copied  completely  and  saved  for  science  and  his- 
tory. Of  course  the  stone  has  long  since  ceased  to  exist,  for  after  what  had 
happened,  the  villagers  would  not  be  Turks  if  they  did  not  have  a  look  at 
the  inside  of  that  stone.  But  after  the  inscription  has  been  copied,  the  stone 
may  perish  unregretted — it  has  told  its  tale. 

THE  TALE  OF    ST.  ABERCIUS,  AND  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  A  PART  OF  HIS    EPITAPH. 

St.  Abercius  is  a  name  with  which  most  people  are  unfamiliar,  even  though 
they  be  good  Catholics  and  otherwise  acquainted  with  the  Hagiology  of  their 
church.  Yet,  as  I  hope  to  show,  Abercius  was  a  man  of  great  importance  in 
his  day.  "The  chief  authority  for  the  life  of  St.  Abercius  is  the  biography 
by  Symeon  Metaphrastes,  written  about  900  A.  D.,"  and  preserved  in  the 
Acta  Sanctorum,  October  22.  "It  quotes  the  epitaph  on  the  saint's  tomb, 
and  the  question  whether  this  epitaph  is  an  original  document  of  the  second 
century  A.  D.,  or  a  later  forgery,  is  one  of  the  utmost  importance  for  the  early 
historv  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  of  many  literary  points  connected  with 
it."t  ' 

Abercius  was  a  man  of  mind  and  sanctity,  and  about  the  year  163  A.  D. 
became  bishop  of  Hieropolis  in  Phrygia  Parva.  The  following  is  an  outline 
of  his  life  as  given  in  the  Acta  Sanctorum :  Such  was  liis  holiness  that  he 
could  not  only  heal  the  sick,  give  sight  to  the  blind,  and  drive  out  devils,  but 
he  had  power  over  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  devils,  as  well.  The  first  years 
of  the  life  of  Abercius  as  bishop  were  spent  in  work  at  Hieropolis,  but  as 
time  went  on  his  fame  increased,  and,  as  is  stated  in  the  epitaph,  he  undertook 
long  journeys  of  mercy  throughout  the  Roman  provinces  of  Asia.  On  these 
journeys  he  was  always  accompanied  by  the  Devil,  as  a  kind  of  valet,  ready  at 
all  times  to  execute  the  behests  of  his  master,  the  saintly  bishop.  Once 
upon  his  return  from  such  a  journey  to  his  home  and  bishopric  at  Hieropolis, 
he  found  that  the  Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  had  promulgated  a  decree  order- 
ing solemn  sacrifices  to  the  gods  to  be  offered  throughout  the  empire  of  the 
East.  This  decree  aroused  the  dormant  fanaticism  of  Abercius,  and  with 
the  help  of  his  no  less  fanatical  followers,  he  broke  to  pieces  the  statues  of 


♦Taken  Croin  Mr.  Ramsay's  account  of  the  finding  of  tlio  stone,  as  published  by  Mommsen 
in  Hermes  XXII,  309  sqq. 

fTliis  and  the  following;  quotations  are  taken  from  Mr.  Ramsay's,  article,  "TlieTaleof 
Saint  Abercius,"  published  in  the  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  1882,  p.  339  sqii. 


An  Archceological  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor.  13 

the  gods  in  all  the  temples  of  Hieropolis.  This  was  a  brutal  and  high- 
handed proceeding  which  the  pagan  Hierpolitans  could  not  brook,  not  that 
they  respected  their  ancient,  but  now  moribund,  religion  very  much,  but  be- 
cause they  feared  the  vengeance  of  the  Romans,  who  were  wont  to  visit  with 
condign  punishment  any  city  which  merely  nerjiecied  the  cult  of  the  Emperors, 
and  all  the  more  was  this  vengeance  to  be  feared  when  positive  insults  had 
been  offered.  For  under  the  f/ods  we  must  here  understand,  not  the  Olympic 
gods,  but  chiefly  the  Roman  Emperors  themselves,  whose  cultus,  along  with 
that  of  such  new  gods  as  Isis,  Bendis,  Mitliras,  Men,  Ma,  etc.,  had  now  almost 
completely  usurped  the  place  formerly  held  by  the  Olympic  deities  of  classi- 
cal times.  This  was  especially  true  of  Asia  Minor,  whose  inhabitants  had 
for  centuries  been  accustomed  to  pay  divine  honors  first  to  the  Persian  kings 
and  then  to  Alexander  the  Great  and  to  his  successors.  Even  the  mild  and 
sensible  Augustus  insisted  on  being  worshipped  as  a  god  in  Asia  Minor.  At 
first  we  find  him  and  Livia,  his  wife,  worshipped  conjointly  with  the  Olympic 
deities.  A  little  later  on,  however,  we  find  everywhere  temples  built  and 
dedicated  to  the  gods  who  sat  on  the  imperial  throne  of  Rome  in  their  own 
names.  I  myself  have  found  a  number  of  inscriptions  dedicating  temples  to  the 
Emperors.  At  the  time  of  Augustus  this  worship  of  the  new  imperial  gods 
was  frowned  upon  at  Rome,  but  it  was  insisted  upon  in  the  provinces  as  a  sym- 
bol of  Roman  dominion.  It  seems  to  have  been  distasteful  to  some  of  the  cities 
of  Asia  Minor  in  spite  of  their  previous  training  at  the  hands  of  the  Per- 
sians, and  especially  of  the  successors  of  Alexander,  who  insisted  on  the 
principle  of  kingship  by  divine  right  to  an  extent  that  would  appall  even  the 
Asiatic  autocrats  of  to-day.  "When  Cyzicus  was  taken  by  the  Romans,  Pom- 
pey  the  Great  granted  certain  privileges  to  the  city.  When  Augustus  came 
into  power  he  confirmed  the  Cyzicans  in  these  privileges.  But  later  on  they 
were  guilty  of  neglecting  the  cult  of  Augustus,  who .  punished  them  by  de- 
priving them  of  these  privileges.  Thus  spurred  on  to  good  works,  the  Cyzi- 
cans began  in  a  surly  humor  to  build  a  temple  to  Augustus.  At  this 
juncture  Augustus  died,  and  work  on  the  temple  was  suspended,  as  being  no 
longer  necessary.  This  aroused  the  wrath  of  the  moody  Tiberius,  who 
chastised  the  city  with  great  severity  on  account  of  this  neglect,  called  in  law 
incuria  caeremoniarum  Augusti. 

The  Hierpolitans  then  bad  all  cause  to  fear  the  vengeance  of  the  gods  who 
wore  the  imperial  purple  of  Rome.  Accordingly,  those  of  them  who  were 
not  Christians  determined  to  visit  Abercius  and  his  followers  with  summary 
punishment,  and  a  mob  collected  around  the  Episcopal  palace  to  lynch  the 
holy  iconoclast  It  was  one  of  those  supreme  moments  which  make  or  mar 
a  hero.  Abercius  saw  his  danger  and  realized  that  nothing  short  of  a  mira- 
cle could  save  him  from  immediate  death.  But  he  was  equal  to  the  occasion. 
By  the  simple  exei'tion  of  his  miraculous  power  he  healed  three  men  in  the 
crowd  who  happened  to  be  possessed  with  devils.  By  this  miracle  he  not 
only  saved  his  life,  but  the  city  of  Hieropolis  was  converted,  and  Abercius 
had  the  great  satisfaction  of  baptizing  on  the  spot  five  hundred  of  his  would- 
be  lyncher^ 

The  Ui  fortunate  matter  seems  to  have  been  amicably  adjusted  with  the 
powers  in  Rome.  At  any  rate  the  troubles  at  Hieropolis  caused  the  fame  of 
Abercius  to  reach  the  ears  of  the  Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  just  at  the  time 
when  *  ucilla,  his  daughter,  had  the  misfortune  to  be  possessed  of  a  devil. 
Abercius,  the  wonder-worker,  was  straightway  summoned  from  Hieropolis  to 
Rome  to  expel  this  devil  from  the  princess.  The  presence  of  Abercius  in 
Rome  seems  to  have  been  satisfactory  to  all  concerned,  and  especially  so 
to   himself.     Leaving  Rome  he  extended  his  travels  to  Syria  and  Baby- 


14  An  ArchcEO logical  Traveled'  in  Asia  Minor. 

Ionia,  returning  after  a  time  to  Hieropolis,  where  he  continued  to  work  mira- 
cles. Among  other  miracles,  and  probably  as  a  sanatory  measure,  he  caused 
a  large  hot  spring  to  arise  in  the  plain  near  Hieropolis.  This  spring  exists  at 
the  present  day,  and  is  a  popular  health  resort  of  the  people  of  all  the  sur- 
rounding country.  At  the  time  of  my  visit  to  it  our  tent  was  pitched  alongside 
of  a  number  of  others  belonging  to  people  who  had  come  from  a  distance  in 
order  to  take  the  baths.  The  building  which  now  covers  this  spring  is  fitted 
up  m  approved  style  of  the  Turkish  bath.  The  abundant  water  is  so  hot  that 
artificial  heating  is  rendered  superfluous,  a  fact  in  which  it  is  still  easy  to  see  the 
hand  of  the  devil.  While  at  Rome  Abercius  took  a  fancy  to  the  beautiful 
white  marble  of  Carrara,  and  longed  to  have  a  block  of  it  at  Hieropolis  to 
be  used  as  his  tombstone.  Accordingly,  he  ordered  his  obedient  servant,  the 
devil,  to  transport  a  block  from  the  Circus  Maximus  at  Rome  to  Hieropolis 
and  inscribe  on  it  the  epitaph  of  Abercius  in  words  indited  and  dictated  by 
the  saint  himself.  The  devil  carried  out  to  the  letter  the  instructions  of  his 
master.  The  original  Greek  of  this  epitaph,  thus  miraculously  inscribed, 
consists  of  a  number  of  limping  hexameters,  and  is  quoted  in  full  in  the  life 
of  the  saint,  as  cited  above.  It  gives  an  account  of  his  holy  life,  miracles, 
and  journeys.  But  until  recent  years  the  very  existence  of  St.  Abercius 
has  been  doubted,  the  whole  legend  of  the  Acta  Sanctorum  has  been 
mocked  at,  and  of  course  the  tale  of  the  epitaph  and  the  block  of  marble 
has  been  treated  with  due  obloquy.  "Tillemont,"  the  historian,  "has  argued 
that  the  life  of  the  saint  as  written  by  Metaphrastes  is  a  mere  fiction,  and  that 
the  epitaph  is  as  worthless  as  the  biography.  He  is  much  shocked  with  the 
levity  of  the  epitaph,  for  the  only  incidents  of  his  Roman  journey  recorded 
by  the  saint  are  his  seeing  the  Empress  in  her  gold  robes  and  shoes,  and 
the  people  who  wore  rings,  i.  e.,  the  senators  and  equites.  He,  therefore, 
condemns  the  epitaph  as  unworthy  of  a  holy  and  aged  bishop,  and  one  about 
to  die."  But  leaving  this  point  out  of  the  question,  "the  arguments  of  Tille- 
mont on  historical  gi'ounds  are  so  weighty  that  the  epitaph  could  not  be 
quoted  as  historical,  however  much  one  might  incline  to  count  it  genuine. 
In  particular  Tillemont's  argument  that  there  was  no  room  for  Abercius  and 
his  successor  in  the  list  of  Bishops  of  Hieropolis  was  apparently  unanswera- 
ble. In  the  biography  Abercius  is  conceived  as  having  lived  a  considerable 
time,  and  travelled  much  after  his  Roman  visit  in  163  A.  D.  He  is  suc- 
ceeded by  another  Abercius;  and  yet  it  is  a  known  fact  that  the  bishop  of 
Hierapolis  in  171  A.  D.,  was  Apollinaris." 

HIERAPOLIS    AND    HIEROPOLIS. 

Mark  the  name  Hierapolis.  Heretofore  I  have  been  saying  Hieropolis;  I 
have  just  now  mentioned  the  name  Hierapolis  for  the  first  time  in  your 
hearing.  In  1882  Mr.  Ramsay  made  it  clear  both  by  the  evidence  of  in- 
scriptions and  of  coins  that  there  were  two  cities,  the  one  Hieropolis,  the 
other  Hierapolis.  Hierapolis  is  the  city  with  which  you  are  all  familiar  from 
the  New  Testament,  and  which  lies  in  the  M.-eander  valley  in  Phrygia  Magna, 
and  which,  along  with  the  neighboring  Laodicea  and  Colossas,  accepted 
Christianity  in  the  time  of  St.  Paul.  Hieropolis  does  not  yet  appear  on  any 
map  with  which  my  audience  is  familiar.  It  is  situated  in  the  plain  of  San- 
dukli,  a  three  days'  journey  directly  northeast  of  Hierapolis,  and*  is  in 
Phrygia  Parva.  Thus  the  arguments  of  Tillemont  fall  at  once  to  the  ground, 
for  if  there  be  no  place  for  Abercius  on  the  list  of  Bishops  of  Hierapolis, 
there  is  a  warm  place  for  him  on  the  list  of  Bishops  of  Hieropolis.  But  that 
is  not  all.     The  toil  of  the  archaaological  explorer  is  sometimes  rewarded  with 


An  Archccological  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor.  15 

startling  results.  In  the  summer  of  188:}  Mr.  Ramsay  and  1  not  only  located 
definitely  the  site  of  Ilieropolis,  but  we  actually  found  what  remains  of  the 
marble  block  which  bore  the  epitaph  quoted  in  the  Acta  Sanctorum.  The 
stone  has  been  broken  into  two  parts,  of  which  we  found  one.  This  part  con- 
tams  not  only  enough  of  the  inscription  to  identify  it  at  a  glance  as  the 
epitaph  of  Abercius,  but  actually  makes  it  possible  to  correct  some  errors  of 
the  text  as  given  in  the  Acta  Sanctorum.  Nay  more,  the  stone  was  found 
in  the  apodyterium  of  the  Turkish  bath  mentioned  above,  and  we  had  the 
keen  satisfaction  of  making  a  paper  squeeze  of  Abercius's  epitaph  with  the 
help  of  tlie  water  of  the  hot  springs  created  by  Abercius  himself,  with  the 
help  of  the  devil.  The  discovery  of  that  stone  produced  a  sensation  in  cer- 
tain quarters,  especially  in  France,  wliere  M.  I'Abbe  Duchesne,  with  these 
data  as  a  starting  pomt,  has  worked  over  the  whole  question  in  all  its  bear- 
ings. The  same  has  been  done  in  part  in  England  by  Mr.  Ramsay.  "The 
confusion  of  the  two  towns  Hierapolis  and  Ilieropolis  has  produced  much 
error  in  early  Christian  history.  In  the  Introduction  to  the  Epistles  to  the 
Colossians  and  Philemon  (p.  55  £f.),  the  Bishop  of  Durham  has  rightly 
caught  the  ring  of  genuineness  in  the  epitaph  of  Abercius,  but  the  longstand- 
ing geographical  mistake. made  it  impossible  to  explain  the  historical  difficul- 
ties." These  difficulties  are  numerous  and  are  interesting,  but  they  have  all 
been  solved  by  the  discoveries  just  mentioned,  and  I  can  not  dwell  farther 
on  them  here.  "The  personality  of  Abercius  formed  a  centre  round  which 
gathered  a  religious  myth,  containing  the  popular  conception  of  the  early 
history  of  Christianity  in  Phrygia.  The  incidents  recorded  in  the  epitaph 
were  entwined  with  other  historical  and  semi-historical  facts.  To  these  were 
added  some  ancient  and  originally  pagan  local  legends  about  certain  natural 
features  of  the  district.  Finally  about  37.0  A.  D.,  the  local  mythology  was 
committed  to  writing,  and  the  life  of  St  Abercius  took  nearly  the  form  that 
it  has  in  the  work  of  Metaphrastes." 

DISCOVERY    OF    THE    SITE    OF    LYSTRA. 

In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  Paul  and  Barnabas  being  at  Iconium,  we 
read:  "  And  when  there  was  an  assault  made  both  of  the  Gentiles  and  also 
of  the  Jews  with  their  rulers,  to  use  them  despitefully  and  to  stone  them, 
they  were  ware  of  it,  and  fled  into  Lystra  and  Derbe,  cities  of  Lycaonia,  and 
unto  the  region  that  lieth  round  about."  Then  follows  an  account  of  Paul's 
successful  work  in  Lystra,  but  "  there  came  thither  certain  Jews  from  Antioch 
and  Iconium,  who  persuaded  the  people,  and  having  stoned  Paul,  drew  him 
out  of  the  city,  supposing  he  had  been  dead.  Howbeit.  as  the  disciples  stood 
round  about  him,  he  rose  up  and  came  into  the  city;  and  the  next  day  he 
departed  with  Barnabas  to  Derbe." 

For  the  Christian  the  city  of  Lystra  will  always  have  a  certain  interest  as 
being  the  scene  of  some  of  the  labors  and  the  stoning  of  Paul.  Singularly 
enough  we  know  of  Lystra  mainly  from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  History 
knows  very  little  concerning  the  city,  and  that  little  is  that  it  was  an  impor- 
tant episcopal  see  throughout  the  Byzantine  times.  It  should  be  added  that 
in  recent  years  some  further  facts  have  come  to  light  in  regard  to  the  city, 
showing  that  .in  Roman  times  it  was  a  very  important  place,  and  indeed  we 
must  concede  to  it  certain  importance  even  from  St.  Paul's  account.  About 
fifteen  years  ago  the  first  coin  of  Lystra  was  found ;  from  this  coin  it  at  once 
became  clear  that  the  city  had  been  turned  into  a  Roman  colony,  whose  offi- 
cial title  was  Julia  Felix  Gemina  Lystra,  and  this  knowledge  made  it  still 
more  necessary  to  discover  the  site,  because  important  historical  inscriptions 


16  An  Archceolo^icaL  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor. 

are  always  to  be  looked  for  on  the  site  of  a  Roman  colony.  Many  have  been 
the  conjectures  made  by  geographers  in  regard  to  the  site  of  Lystra.  It  has 
been  located  at  places  many  miles  apart;  the  most  generally  approved  site 
up  to  the  present  is  neaiiy  one  hundred  miles  from  the  true  site.  Col. 
Leake  made  a  happy  guess  as  to  the  site  and  by  chance  hit  the  spot  exactly. 
But  his  assumption  was  rejected  by  all  geographers,  and  the  site  of  Lystra 
remained  a  puzzle  as  before. 

On  my  journey  of  exploration  during  the  summer  of  1885,  I  discovered 
the  site  and  put  the  matter  beyond  all  cavil  by  means  of  a  Latin  inscription, 
which  bears  the  full  official  name  of  the  Roman  colony  of  Lystra.  This  in- 
scription tells  us  that  the  city  of  Lystra  erected  a  statue  to  the  emperor 
Augustus  by  order  of  the  Decurions.  The  inscription  is  cut  on  what  is 
usually  called  a  cippus,  that  is,  a  pedestal  square  in  the  ground  plan  and  with 
moldings  at  top  and  bottom.  On  this  pedestal  once  stood  the  statue  of  Au- 
gustus,* and  the  pedestal  still  stands  erect  on  the  site  of  Lystra,  spared  by 
time  and  vandalism  to  tell  its  tale  and  to  locate  the  important  city.  As  I 
kneeled  befor-.  .he  stone  to  copy  the  inscription  and  saw  that  I  had  found 
Lystra,  you  may  believe  that  I  was  filled  with  gladness  and  joy.  For  Paul 
himself  had  stood  before  that  very  stone  and  with  his  own  eyes  had  read 
those  very  identical  letters,  and  to  me,  alone  of  all  the  Christian  world,  was  it 
allotted  to  stand  on  the  site  of  Lystra  and  view  the  scene  where  God's  holy 
apostle  was  stoned.  The  mission  of  that  stone  is  now  fulfilled,  and  it  matters 
little  how  soon  the  Turks  break  it  up  in  their  search  for  pelf  or  for  building 
materials.  But  surely  it  would  be  a  grand  thing  for  some  museum  or  Chris- 
tian institution  to  come  into  possession  of  that  stone.  Such  stones  are  rare, 
and  they  are  very  precious,  with  a  preciousness  that  can  not  be  measured  by 
filthy  gold.  A  few  days  after  the  discovery  of  the  site  of  Lystra  I  had  the 
good  fortune  to  buy  a  coin  of  the  city.  This  coin  bears  the  name  of  the 
Roman  colony,  Julia  Felix  Gemina  Lystra,  and  is  very  valuable  for  a  mu- 
seum or  collection  of  coins,  being  the  fourth  coin  of  Lystra  that  is  known. 

DISCOVERY     OF     NEW    ISAURA     AND     ITS     BEARING     ON     THE    ORLEANS     FRAGMENTS 

OF    SALLUST. 

While  my  headquarters  were  at  Lystra  I  made  an  excursion  of  a  day 
toward  the  south,  and  on  this  excursion  I  stumbled  upon  another  important 
city,  whose  name  was  fortunately  given  by  a  Greek  inscription  found  on  the 
site.  This  city  was  New  Isaura  (Isaura  Nova).  Old  Isaura  (Isaura  Vetus) 
had  been  discovered  by  Hamilton  some  fifty  years  ago,  and  until  my  dis- 
covery it  was  thought  that  Old  and  New  Isaura  were  really  one  and  the  same 
city  under  different  names.  New  Isaura  being  regarded  as  the  name  of 
Isaura  after  an  assumed  destruction  and  rebuilding.  Now  during  the  winter 
of  188G  the  Austrian  Imperial  Academy  of  Sciences  sent  a  young  man.  Dr. 
Edward  Hauler,  to  Orleans  in  France  to  copy  certain  manuscripts  of  some  of 
the  Church  Fathers.  While  Dr.  Hauler  was  engaged  in  this  work  he 
discovered  that  the  manuscript  on  which  he  was  at  work  was  a  palimpsest. 
Applying  the  proper  reagents  he  found  that  a  manuscript  of  the  History  of 
Sallust  had  been  erased  to  make  way  for  the  words  of  the  Church  Father. 
It  soon  became  evident  too  that  he  had  before  him  a  part  of  the  History  of 
Sallust  not  hitherto  known.  The  fragment  thus  discovered  treats  of  the 
siege  and  conquest  of  Isaura  Nova  by  the  Roman  Consul  Servilius,  and  you 


*Tho  hole.s  cut  in  the  marble  for  tlic  foot  of  the  statue  of  Augustus  are  still  to  be  seen  on 
the  top  of  the  pedestal. 


An  Archceological  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor.  17 

will  observe  that  it  is  New  Isaura  which  Sallust  mentions.  Dr.  Hauler  in- 
formed Prof.  Mommsen  and  the  principal  scholars  of  Germany  of  his  dis- 
covery, and  in  a  preliminary  publication  of  the  Sallust  fragments,  he  located 
Isaura  Nova  at  Old  Isaura,  and  very  naturally  too,  for  it  was  not  yet  known 
that  there  were  "two  Isauras.  Prof.  Mommsen  put  the  Sallust  fragments  into 
my  hands  and  called  Dr.  Hauler's  attention  to  my  exploration  of  Isauria.  It 
then  became  clear  that  I  could  throw  important  light  on  the  Sallust  frag- 
ments, because  my  minute  explorations  of  all  the  country  around  both  the 
cities  which  bore  the  name  Isaura  made  me  perfectly  familiar  with  the  lay  of 
the  land.  Now  Frontinus  mentions  this  siege  of  Servilius  as  the  siege  of 
Isaura,  without  stating  which  Isaura  was  meant,  or  rather  leaving  us  to  infer 
that  their  was  but  one  Isaura.  Frontinus  tells  us  that  Servilius  could  only 
take  the  city  by  turning  the  course  of  the  river  from  which  the  besieged 
citizens  got  their  water.  Just  here  then  is  where  topographical  knowledge 
comes  to  the  assistance  of  the  historian.  Dr.  Hauler  having  assumed  that 
the  words  of  the  Sallust  fragments  and  of  Frontinus  had  reference  to  Old 
Isaura  was  naturally  compelled  to  assume  that  it  was  the  Calycadnus  (in 
which  Barbarossa  was  drowned),  which,  according  to  Frontinus,  was  turned 
out  of  its  channel  in  order  to  bring  the  city  to  terms.  The  Calycadnus  is  a 
large  river  which  flows  past  Old  Isaura,  but  at  a  distance  of  three  miles  from 
it.  This  distance  was  of  course  one  great  point  against  the  assumption  of 
Dr.  Hauler.  But  there  is  still  another  point.  I  had  explored  the  Calycad- 
nus River  virtually  from  its  mouth  to  its  source,  and  for  at  least  a  hundred 
miles  it  lies  in  a  deep  canyon,  which  opposite  Old  Isaura  is  lOOO  feet  deep. 
Consequently  even  had  the  Calycadnus  been  close  enough  to  give  water  to 
the  city  of  Isaura,  there  was  no  more  possibility  of  changing  its  course  than 
there  is  of  moving  Pike's  Peak.  Then  the  words  of  Frontinus  and  of  the 
Sallust  fragments  do  not  refer  to  Old,  but  to  New  Isaura,  the  city  whose  site 
I  bad  the  good  fortune  to  discover.  Now  either  of  the  two  rivers  that  unite 
immediately  below  New  Isaura  can  be  turned  out  of  their  channel  without 
any  difficulty,  a  fact  that  puts  the  question  of  the  indentification  beyond  all 
doubt.  But  to  make  certainty  doubly  sure  my  topographical  knowledge  adds 
still  another  point  as  cumulative  evidence.  The  Sallust  fragments  inform  us 
that  ServiUus  occupied  a  hill  overlooking  the  city,  from  which  hill  the  Roman 
troops  bombarded  the  town.  This  hill  was  sacred  to  the  Great  Mother,  bet- 
ter known  probably  as  Cybele.  This  tallies  exactly  with  the  topography  of 
the  site.  There  is  a  small  hill  lying  immediately  beside  the  ruins  of  the  city, 
the  only  hill  m  fact  in  the  vicinity.  Thus  then  the  site  of  New  Isaura  and 
the  scene  of  the  siege  of  Servilius  are  put  beyond  question. 

LOCATING    THE    SITES    OF    ANCIENT    CITIES. 

From  what  I  have  already  said  above  you  will  have  gathered  that  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  that  the  Archaeological  traveler  should  know  how  to 
make  a  route  survey  of  the  country  which  is  the  scene  of  his  explorations. 
For  thus  he  is  able  in  places  to  create  the  modern  map,  in  places  to  correct 
and  add  to  the  labors  of  travelers  who  may  have  preceded  him.  But  leav- 
ing out  of  question  the  map  of  to-day,  important  though  it  be,  it  is  the  map 
of  antiquity  which  is  one  of  the  chief  problems  to  the  solution  of  which  the 
earnest  attention  of  the  Archaeological  traveler  must  be  directed.  Conse- 
quently the  location  of  ancient  cities  is  a  matter  of  prime  importance.  A 
city^s  best  and  most  incontrovertibly  located  by  the  evidence  of  inscriptions 
which  bear  its  name  in  some  way  or  other  and  which  are  found  at  or  near 
the  site.     Of  course  one  generallv  finds  the  site  first,  but  it  has  happened  to 


18  An  ArchcBolopical  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor, 


"A 


me  to  find  the  name  of  a  city  before  finding  the  site,  and  in  such  a  case  one 
must  scour  the  country  far  and  wide  in  order  to  find  the  site  to  which  the 
name  belonged.  In  one  instance  I  found  the  name  a  full  month  before  the 
site  turned  up,  and  then  it  was  located  by  the  modern  Turkish  corruption  of 
the  ancient  Greek  name  (^Gorgorome^  corrupted  by  the  Turks  to  GuJghurum). 

THE    LOCATIXG    OF    TAVIUM    AND    ITS    BEARING    ON    THE    GEOGRAPHY    OF    NORTH- 
EASTERN  ASIA    MINOR. 

Tavium,  a  city  of  northwestern  Cappadocia,  was  a  city  of  importance  at 
the  very  beginning  of  history,  and  continued  to  be  the  emporium  of  the 
whole  surrounding  country  down  possibly  to  early  Byzantine  times.  The 
celebrated  rock  sculptures  of  the  neighboring  Boghazkieui  and  Euyuk  prove 
that  Tavium  was  inhabited  by  that  enigmatical  people  who  have  left  endur- 
ing memorials  of  their  high  civilization  in  the  rock  sculptures  found  through- 
out Asia  Minor  and  northern  Syria,  and  the  seat  of  whose  empire  seems  to 
have  been  Carchemish  on  the  Euphrates.  This  people  has  of  late  been  called 
the  Kheta,  or  Hittites.  Some  scholars  are  dissatisfied  with  the  name  Hittite, 
and  for  the  remains  in  Asia  Minor,  at  least,  prefer  the  name  of  Cappadocian 
or  Anatolian  art.  After  the  Hittite  period  Tavium  continued  to  flourish 
under  the  Persians,  and  was  an  important  station  on  what  Herodotus  calls  the 
Royal  Road,  leading  from  Ephesus  to  Susa.  Over  this  road  traveled  the 
earhest  recorded  postal  service,  carrying  dispatches  from  the  western  sea- 
board of  Asia  Minor  to  the  royal  court  at  distant  Susa.  Under  the  Roman 
Empire  Tavium  still  occupied  an  important  place  among  the  cities  of  the  in- 
terior of  Asia  Minor.  It  was  the  centre  of  the  Roman  road  system  for  the 
whole  of  northwestern  Cappadocia,  Pontus,  and  Galatia,  being  the  point  of 
divergence  of  seven  Roman  roads,  and  from  Tavium  distances  were  measured 
along  each  of  these  seven  roads.  Consequently  it  is  a  matter  of  the  highest 
importance  for  ancient  geography  to  have  the  site  of  Tavium  located  with 
absolute  certainty.  An  elaborate  postal  service  was  kept  up  throughout  the 
Roman  Empire,  and  several  lists  of  Roman  postal  stations  have  come  down  to 
us,  and  they  are  very  precious  for  ancient  geography.  The  most  important 
of  these  lists  is  the  Antonine  Itinerary,  so  called  because  it  contains  the  offi- 
cial list  of  the  postal  stations  under  Antoninus  Pius.  These  lists  give  not 
only  the  names  of  the  postal  stations,  but  also  the  distance  from  station  to 
station  in  Roman  miles,  begin  aing  from  a  certain  city  which  was  the  point 
from  which  distances  were  measured  for  the  whole  surrounding  country  for 
at  least  200  miles.  Those  of  you  who  have  been  in  Rome  will  remember  the 
triumphal  arch  of  Septimius  Severus.  Just  by  the  side  of  this  arch  once 
stood  the  Milliarium  Aureum,  or  golden  milestone,  remains  of  which  may  be 
seen  at  the  present  day.  This  Milliarium  Aureum  was  erected  in  the  year 
28  B.  C,  by  the  emperor  Augustus,  and  it  was  the  point  from  which  dis- 
tances were  measured  on  all  the  roads  radiating  from  Rome.  Similar  Mil- 
liaria  were  erected  in  Asia  Minor  in  the  cities  which  were  the  starting  points 
from  which  distances  were  measured  along  the  roads  of  a  given  province. 
Many  of  these  starting  points  are  given  in  the  Itineraries  mentioned  above, 
or  in  tlie  Peutinger  Table — an  ancient  map,  that  has  come  down  to  us  by  a 
happy  chance — but  many  of  the  starting  points  are  not  given,  and  it  is  one  of 
the  chief  aims  of  the  Archasologist  to  hunt  up  the  Roman  milestones  that  may 
have  been  spared  by  time  and  barbarism,  in  order  to  gather  from  them  irre- 
fragible  hints  in  regard  to  the  topography  of  the  region  of  country  which 
happens  to  be  the  subject  of  his  explorations.  You  will  see  from  the  above 
remarks  how  important  it  is  to  get  the  starting  point  fixed  beyond  the  shadow 


An  ArchcBological  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor.  19 

of  a  doubt.  For  if  that  be  once  fixed,  then  tlie  location  of  the  cities  or  postal 
stations  between,  say,  Tavium  and  Ancyra,  is  comparatively  easy  and  requires 
only  patient  investigation  of  the  region  of  country  on  the  line  of  march  be- 
tween Tavium  and  Ancyra.  Thus  at  a  distance  of,  let  us  say,  twenty  Roman 
miles,  as  one  travels  west  from  Tavium,  the  traveler  knows  from  the  Itin- 
erary, or  Peutinger  Table,  that  he  must  try  to  find  the  ruins  of  a  town  or  of 
a  postal  station,  and  consequently  he  scours  the  country  until  he  find  the 
object  of  his  search.  In  many  cases  the  station  would  be  so  insignificant 
that  no  remains  of  it  will  have  been  spared  to  the  present  day,  for  often  the 
stations  mentioned  in  the  Itineraries  were  nothing  more  than  temporary 
quarters  for  the  change  of  horses,  and  consisted  simply  in  buildings  for  the 
care  of  the  relays  of  horses  and  the  entertainment  of  the  officials  in  charge 
of  them.  But  it  matters  little  if  the  traveler  find  no  traces  of  these  insig- 
nificant intermediate  stations,  provided  the  mileage  of  the  Itinerary  between 
two  given  fixed  points,  such  as  Tavium  and  Ancyra,  be  ascertained  to  be  be- 
yond all  doubt.  In  that  case  it  is  only  necessary  for  the  traveler  to  measure 
ofi  the  distances  of  the  Itinerary,  and  he  has  the  whole  line  fixed  with  a  very 
near  approach  to  certainty.  If  he  do  find  one  or  more  of  the  intervening 
stations,  of  course  that  makes  the  matter  still  more  certain. 

Now  geographers,  from  the  time  when  they  first  began  to  make  maps  of 
ancient  Asia  Minor,  have  sorely  needed  a  certain  and  trustworthy  identifica- 
tion of  the  site  of  Tavium,  and  it  has  been  located  by  different  travelers  at 
places  a  whole  degree  and  a  half  distant  from  the  actual  site.  True,  some 
have  located  it  at  the  proper  place,  but  none  of  the  identifications  could  be 
proven  positively,  and  consequently  the  site  of  Tavium  continued  to  be  a 
mooted  question  until  the  year  1884.  During  the  summer  of  that  year  it 
was  my  good  fortune  to  find  the  first  milestone  on  the  Roman  road  between 
Tavium  and  Ancyra.  I  had  found  the  site  before  I  found  the  stone.  This 
milestone  locates  Tavium  definitely  and  finally,  and  enables  the  geographer 
to  fill  in  with  comparative  ease  the  map  of  the  country  reaching  west  to  An- 
cyra and  east  to  Caesarea,  Sebastia,  Amisus,  Amasia,  etc.  Afterwards  I  found 
the  100th  milestone  on  the  same  road. 

THE    IDENTIFICATION   OF   THE    SITES   OF   ANCIENT   TOWNS   BY   TURKISH   CORRUPTIONS 

OF    THE    ANCIENT    NAME. 

I  have  already  stated  above  that  the  evidence  of  inscriptions  which  bear 
the  name  of  the  place  is  the  best  and  most  incontrovertible  means  of  locat- 
ing a  city,  but  often,  in  default  of  this  direct  epigraphical  evidence,  a  clear 
case  of  the  corruption  of  the  ancient  name  by  the  Turks  is  a  most  safe  way 
of  identification.  Thus  after  finding  and  locating  Tavium  by  means  of  the 
inscription  just  mentioned,  I  traveled  northward  following  the  line  of  the 
ancient  Roman  road  as  laid  down  in  the  Peutinger  Table,  and  at  Tamba 
Hassan  I  found  several  badly  defaced  Roman  milestones,  a  fact  which  proved 
that  I  was  actually  on  the  line  of  the  Roman  road.  Now  the  Peutinger 
Table  gives  Tomha  as  the  first  station  on  this  road  at  a  distance  of  thirteen 
Roman  miles  from  Tavium,  and  it  takes  very  little  acumen  to  discover  the 
loviba  of  the  Peutinger  Table  in  tlie  Turkish  Tamba  Hassan.  This  then  is 
the  way  in  which  the  map  is  filled  in  with  ease  and  certainty  after  the  true 
starting  point  of  the  Roman  road  system  has  been  discovered. 

ROMAN    MILESTONES. 

The  Roman  roilestone  was  a  block  of  roughly  hewn  limestone  about  four 
feet  Ib  diameter  at  the  base  and  about  nine  feet  high.     It  tapered  off  grad- 


20  An  Archceological  Traveler  m  Asia  Minor. 

ually  toward  the  top  in  a  cone-like  fashion,  being  about  one  foot  and  a  half 
in  diameter  at  the  bluntly  rounded  top.  The  majority  of  these  milestones 
were  inscribed,  in  Latin  of  course,  and  these  inscriptions  give  not  only  the 
name  of  the  Emperor  under  whose  reign  the  road  was  constructed  or  re- 
paired, but,  what  is  a  matter  of  great  importance  for  the  history  of  the  time, 
they  give  the  name  of  the  Roman  governor  during  whose  term  of  office  the 
road  was  constructed  or  repaired.  I  found  in  all  about  one  hundred  in- 
scribed milestones.  Many  of  these  were  inscribed  two  and  three  times.  When 
the  road  was  originally  built  they  erected  along  the  entire  line  of  the  road 
milestones  bearing  inscriptions  dated  by  the  name  of  the  then  reigning  em- 
peror and  giving  the  name  of  the  governor  of  the  province  who  constructed 
the  road.  Now  with  the  lapse  of  time  the  road  and  especially  the  bridges 
had  fallen  into  decay.  A  new  Emperor  was  wearing  the  purple  at  Rome, 
a  new  governor,  who  cared  not  for  the  works  of  long  past  predecessors,  was 
now  lording  it  in  the  province.  This  new  governor  would  repair  the  roads 
and  bridges,  but  instead  of  going  to  the  expense  of  having  new  milestones 
made,  he  simply  had  his  inscription  cut  on  the  old  stones  and  directly  over  the 
old  inscription  without  having  first  erased  it.  Now  while  the  marks  of  the 
chisel  were  fresh  and  unweathered  the  new  inscription  might  be  read  with 
comparative  ease,  but  as  soon  as  time  and  weather  had  worn  off  the  fresh- 
ness of  the  new  inscription,  then  it  became  a  matter  of  science  to  decipher 
the  twain.  It  sometimes  happened  that  a  third  inscription  was  cut  over  the 
already  existing  two.  I  have  found  several  such  milestones,  and  you  can 
easily  imagine  my  despair  when  brought  face  to  face  with  such  a  stone.  But 
persevering  study  and  painstaking  combination  of  details  enabled  me  to  work 
them  all  out  satisfactorily.  The  most  of  these  milestones  were  found  in 
Cataonia,  the  region  east  of  the  Antitaurus  range  of  mountains.  At  the  time 
I  was  traveling  eastward  toward  the  Euphrates  from  Comana,  the  seat  of 
the  worship  of  the  great  goddess  Ma,  in  whose  temple  at  Comana  no  less 
than  6000  slaves  were  kept  busy,  and  whose  chief  priest  was  virtual  king 
of  Cappadocia.  Judging  then  from  the  importance  of  Comana  one  might 
naturally  expect  to  find  that  it  was  the  starting  point  of  the  system  of  Roman 
roads  for  the  Trans- Antitauran  region.  But  about  two  hours  east  of  Comana 
I  found  the  144th  milestone.  This  then  was  proof  positive  that  Comana  was 
not  the  starting  place  of  the  road  system,  for  had  it  it  been  such,  then  the 
milestone  would  have  been  the  seventh  or  at  most  the  tenth  instead  of  the 
144th.  As  I  continued  to  journey  eastward  and  to  discover  new  milestones, 
it  was  found  that  the  numbers  steadily  decreased  until  finally  it  became  cer- 
tain that  Melitene,  on,  or  i-ather  not  far  from,  the  Euphrates,  was  the  starting 
point  of  which  I  was  in  quest.  These  milestones,  besides  their  great  liistor- 
ical  value,  enable  me  to  make  some  corrections  in  the  text  of  the  Antonme 
Itinerary,  where  it  can  be  proven  that  the  distances  given  in  the  Itinerary  do 
not  tally  with  the  actual  distances  between  two  known  points,  such  as  Comana 
and  Cocussus.  For  instance  a  slovenly  scribe  might  easily  write  XXV  (25 
miles),  where  it  can  be  proven  that  the  text  must  be  amended  to  read  XV 
(1 .5  miles). 

ROMAN    ROADS    IN    THE    PALMYRENE    DESERT. 

After  my  explorations  in  Cataonia  where  I  came  into  daily  contact  with 
the  Roman  milestone,  I  became  a  member  of  the  Wolfe  expedition  to  Baby- 
lonia. On  the  home  journey  from  Babylon  and  Baghdad  we  crossed  the 
Syrian  desert.  About  one  day's  journey  east  of  Palmyra  in  the  desert  my 
eyes  suddenly  fell  upon  a  large  stone  lying  by  the  roadside.     It  was  a  Roman 


An  Archceological  Traveler  in  Asia  Minor.  21 

milestone,  but  uninscribed.  However  it  served  to  put  me  on  the  alert. 
Further  on  another  was  found,  and  still  another  until  finally  I  had  the  satis- 
faction of  finding  an  inscrihcd  stone,  the  eighth  on  the  Roman  road  from  Pal- 
myra to  Aracha.  It  is  well  known  that  people,  manners,  customs,  and  names 
change  very  slowly  in  the  conservative  East,  nay,  the  life  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob  may  be  seen  througliout  tlie  Mesopotamia  and  Chaldea  of  to- 
day, and  many  of  the  cities  whose  names  were  familiar  to  the  patriarchs  of 
the  Bible  still  bear  their  Biblical  names.  Of  this  intense  stability  both  the 
names  on  this  eighth  milestone  are  interesting  examples.  Palmyra,  as  proba- 
bly some  of  you  know,  is  but  the  Latin  translation  of  the  Shemetic  ledmur, 
or  the  place  of  the  palms,  and  its  name  is  still  Tedmur,  and  nothing  but  Ted- 
mur,  throughout  the  Orient  of  the  present  day.  Aracha,  the  other  name 
mentioned  in  the  inscription  of  this  milestone,  is  the  Latinized  form  of  the 
Shemetic  name  Erek,  and  this  Erek  is  still  existant,  and  still  bears  the  name 
Erek.  It  is  the  first  station  east  of  Palmyra.  Leaving  this  eighth  mile- 
stone, we  Journeyed  on  towards  Palmyra,  finding  nearly  all  of  the  remaining 
seven,  some  of  them  being  still  in  position.  West  of  Palmyra  we  found  the 
Roman  road  leading  from  Palmyra  to  Hama,  and  followed  it  for  about  five 
miles,  finding  inscribed  milestones,  all  still  erect  and  in  position.  If  we  did  not 
know  the  exact  length  of  the  Roman  mile  it  might  be  measured  from  the 
stones  of  this  road.  I  say  road^  but  it  is  no  longer  such.  We  were  travel- 
ing without  any  road  over  the  desert  with  native  guides  who  knew  where  the 
water  puddles  were  to  be  found  in  the  spring  of  the  year.  We  simply  stum- 
bled upon  the  first  milestone,  and  shortly  afterwards  another  one  was  descried 
in  the  distance,  thus  we  got  the  direction  of  the  road  and  followed  it  for 
a  few  miles,  as  long  indeed  as  prudence  would  allow,  and  we  turned  away 
from  the  road  and  the  milestones  in  silence  and  in  sorrow.  Some  future 
traveler  who  has  the  courage  to  venture  over  the  trackless  waste  between 
Palmyra  and  Hama  will  reap  a  rich  epigraphical  harvest.  These  milestones  of 
the  desert  are  of  prime  historical  importance,  because,  before  their  discovery, 
scholars  never  dreamed  that  the  Roman  system  of  roads  extended  through 
the  desert  to  the  Euphrates  and  possibly  down  the  river  to  Babylon  and 
Seleucia.  Previous  travelers  to  Palmyra  had  failed  to  discover  these  stones, 
probably  because  they  did  not  know  what  the  Roman  milestone  looked  like. 
There  is  something  awe-inspiring  about  these  hoary  guardians  of  the 
Roman  road,  simple  and  I'ongh  though  they  be.  Like  the  Roman  sentinel 
of  old,  they  are  still  true  to  their  trust,  eloquent  and  stately  reminders  of  the 
mighty  deeds  of  mighty  Rome.  Fourteen,  fifteen  hundred  years  have  passed 
over  them ;  they  have  witnessed  the  prolonged  death  struggle  of  the  impe- 
rial city  of  the  seven  hills;  they  have  seen  empires,  nations  arise  and  grow 
wanton  in  the  pride  of  strength  only  to  return  to  the  nothingness  from  which 
they  sprang,  but  still  they  stand  proudly  erect,  simple,  austere,  sublime,  in  the 
silence  and  the  solitude  of  the  desert,  bidding  defiance  to  time  and  to  man. 


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%  ^959 


Form  L-9-15»((-7,'35 


UNIVEKSITY  of  CALIKOKNIA 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 

UBRARY 


AA    000  803  283    1 


o 


->:v*. 


H!>R> 


/  iiki      *r^    t"*  A 


